This Friday or next Friday?

Timo asks:

Quandary - Some friends and I were talking about a day in the future (Friday, say, when we go for our weekly lunch) and we ended up in nice discussion about next versus this.

On Wednesday we might say "Let's do this this Friday".

On Saturday we might say "Let's do this next Friday".

But, on Thursday if we said "Let's do this next Friday I would think it's the week Friday and not tomorrow."

Shouldn't we have day limits on "next" and "this"?

We probably should, but we don't. As a general rule, "this Friday" should be the immediate Friday in our future, whether we're talking about it on Saturday or Thursday. "Next Friday" should be the following Friday. In practice, however, many people use the terms interchangeably, and confusingly.

The British and some Commonwealth countries have a useful expression: "Let's meet for lunch on Friday week"—that is, one week after the coming Friday. I have no idea why Canadians and Americans prefer the longer "a week from Friday."

Comments

[Dennis Jerz]

AP style would have us say just "Friday" for the upcoming Friday, so "next Friday" would be a week after that.

[Alternate City]

That's the way I've always understood and used it, Dennis.

[Mary Anne Postma]

Using the expression "Friday week" for a week from Friday, is also an expression heard here in the South.

[Mary Anne Postma]

I will say it is confusing to some of us because we are not sure if it refers to the Friday coming up in,
say, 11 days, or the one in 4 days.

[Tim Hooper]

I think the next Friday should be the next Friday coming up however close or far away then everyone would understand what day they are talking about ...just saying !

[Mark Kummer]

In British English, is there a distinction between Tuesday next and Tuesday week?

[Crof]

"Tuesday next"could be two or three days from now. "Tuesday week" is understood to be one week from this week's Tuesday.